Norway 2021

05/02/2021: A 16-year-old from Syria was arrested at his home in Oslo and charged with preparing a terrorist operation for being in contact with "dangerous substances" and it is implied that he probably had the "intention of using this to create fear in the population" by poisoning random Norwegians "unbelievers". He settled in Norway in 2018 for a family reunion and his relatives do not understand why he would indulge into terrorist activities. A yellow bottle of nicotine was found in his room and he was remanded in custody for two weeks with mail and visitation restrictions in Oslo District Court however, the Court decided on February 19, to uphold the custody until March 5, as he refused to be questioned. (Source)

08/02/2021: The updated National Threat Assessment was presented by PST. This new draft asserts that the threat from extremist Islamists has increased. The reason for this is growing tension between "freedom of expression and what many Muslims experience as an offense against Islam," as stated in the threat assessment. Besides, PST deems that the pandemic may be a conducive of negative consequences in several areas, and warns against violent carried out by some people being inspired to plan terror. (Source)

01/03/2021: The woman who retuned to Norway back in January 2020 stands trial in Oslo district Court. She was accused of participating in the terrorist group IS yet pleaded not guilty since her return to Norway after 7 years spent in the Caliphate. After the death of her first husband, Jihadist Bastian Vasquez, she married two other IS figures from Egypt, the second one being a Sharia judge. She was sentenced on May 4, 2021 to three and a half years in prison yet she appealed the verdict. (Source)

18/05/2021: A 25-year-old man named Ibraahim M. Weli Sheikh, was tried for three attempts to contribute to terrorist attacks in London, Denmark and an unknown country via 566 chat groups he was an administrator for. Coming from Skien, he was arrested on September 6, 2019 and charged with violating Section 133 of the Criminal Code for his ties with seven men and two women arrested in Denmark where they were about to carry out a terrorist operation. PST found, among other things, messages on his mobile phone from the British woman convicted of terrorism, Safiyya Shaikh. She was sentenced to life in prison in England for planning to carry out a terrorist attack on St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (Source)

According to his friends, he progressively got radicalized after a spiritual trip to Egypt from whence he came back with a beard and a new name after attending a Quranic school. His new radical religious practices made him an outcast among the Muslim community of Skien. (Source)

He was convicted of participating in the terrorist organization IS, and of inciting terrorist acts in Denmark and England. Although he pleaded not guilty and merely claimed that he took distance from IS and that his calls to violent were overreactions and bravado, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison on July 15, 2021. The case is outstanding since no one has previously been convicted in Norway under the terror provisions in this part of the Criminal Code, for acts that were committed exclusively via the internet. He appealed the decision and his case began in Borgarting Court of Appeal on October 26, 2021. (Source)

The 16-year-old Syrian suspect arrested in February 2021 was tried in the Oslo District Court. He is charged with terrorist preparations and participation in IS yet he pleaded not guilty and claimed that he produced his poison mixture "out of curiosity" and that his pledges to IS on the internet were just bravado. On the other hand, the prosecution pointed out that the boy shared IS content with others online. He also created and shared an instructional video explaining how sympathizers can bypass Twitter's filters to share IS propaganda. At one point on February 1, 2021, he wrote in a chat on Telegram, "inshallah I will start Jihad soon" and "maybe I'll make an explosive belt and make a martyr. I'm thinking about it now." implying that he was considering targetting nightclubs or beaches around May 17. Although the prosecution requested a eight-year sentence, the boy was ultimately sentenced on June 29, 2021 to five years of imprisonment three of which will be suspended. The Court decision was not appealed yet the sentence was criticized for its severity. (Source)

15/07/2021: The Norwegian Government presented a new National Counterterrorism Strategy to improve society's ability to protect itself against terror and to mark the tenth anniversary of the 2011 Norway attacks. This enhanced version will fix previous flaws by focusing on: minimizing possible gaps in the regulatory framework caused by technology development, particularly in cyberspace; implementing measures to improve communication between authorities and potential terrorist targets; strengthening local cooperation against terrorist incidents; increasing knowledge about reintegration challenges and measures; improving cross-sectoral cooperation in cases in which mental health issues and extremism are or may be relevant. (Source)

20/08/2021: The PST have charged in abstentia with participation in a terrorist organization four Norwegian IS women who are detained in Syria. According to Norwegian current legislation regarding terrorism, such crime is punishable by up to six years in prison. The women are an ethnic Norwegian from Trøndelag, two sisters from Bærum and Aisha Shazadi Kausar from Bærum as well. All of the women are currently interned in the Roj and Al-Hol camps in Northeastern Syria. (Source)

This prosecution was carried out after the Kurdish self-governing authorities in northeastern Syria have decided to expel those women from Syrian territory on June, 6 2021. (Source)

The two sisters already have agreed to be repatriated to Norway as well as Aisha Shazadi Kausar especially. She went to Syria in 2014 for her right to wear the Islamic scarf yet it seems things turned out to be not as good as she expected. Moreover, she was another wife of Norwegian Jihadist Bastian Vasquez and she reportedly made a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 2021 for the sake of her children who live in pitiful conditions. However this is not the first time she reaches out to Norwegian authorities for repatration assistance before changing her mind as she reportedly did in 2018-2019. (Source)

21/10/2021: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre declared that Norway does not implement a policy to ensure the return of nationals notably women, who have joined IS and remain stuck in Syria. This assertion is reminiscent of the thorny question of the IS returnees that European countries strive to address. (Source)

15/11/2021: The Sandnes Sparebank was fined by PST because they did not freeze a suspicious client account quickly enough which belong to Mullah Krekar who was expelled from Norway back in March 2020. It was Krekar's Norwegian lawyer Brynjar Meling who created the bank account on April 2, 2020. The account was to be used to deposit money from a fundraising campaign to raise money for legal aid for Krekar in Italy. There was approximately 46,000 kroner in the account when Sandnes Sparebank chose to block the account. Five days later, the bank stopped a transaction they believed was cause for action. The bank decided that they would let the payment go through and book it. After this, Sandnes Sparebank decided that the client account would be monitored manually on a daily basis. (Source)

No money ever left the account, only deposits were made. On June 26, 2020, the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority reported the bank for possible violation of the freezing obligation and PST took the matter in charged before fining Sandnes Sparebank for one million kroner. (Source)

Norway   

© Copyright 2020 Nordic CT Network - All Rights Reserved - Powered by Dot Dot Enterprise